A short illustrated talk by our member Andrew Sheldon on the history of the River Stour from its source to the sea. Places of interest along the way from times gone by and the present day, including important brickwork’s, battle grounds and structures.

Youâ€™re invited to bring recommended reading to the meeting. Fiction or non-fiction, prose or poetry, science or art, funny or serious – whatever youâ€™ve enjoyed, come and be prepared to tell us about it. Note that if you decide to buy any of the books, thereâ€™s an Amazon link on our website – we get commission if you use it.

The way I made it was to plunder from the great traditions texts on which I had performed redaction, weaving them together, editing them, interpolating other texts and sometimes my own, just as the Bible makers worked on their texts. It was tremendous fun.

If you decide to buy it, why not use our Amazon link? That way, we get some commission.

What a silly question – of course you can. Whether or not you’re religious has nothing to do with it. Some religious people are bad, some are good. Likewise with atheists. However, there are still many who imagine that if you don’t believe in a god (usually a Christian or Muslim one), you’re a bad person, and everyone who does believe is morally superior.

James Hazell has invited Margaret Nelson and a cleric (not sure who) to debate the question on his radio programme on Wednesday (times may vary). If you’re not local you can listen online. Meanwhile, you might like to check our other website that tells you all about it.

Never mind the poster boy of physics, Prof. Brian Cox, Suffolk’s got its own super-astronomer, our member Tom Boles, who has an observatory at Coddenham. Tom (who is a Scot, by the way) will be one of the speakers at the Edinburgh Science Festival, together with The Astronomers Royal, Lord Rees and Professor John Brown, Sheffield University’s Professor Hughes, and others. The event is free. We’d like to organise an outing to Edinburgh, but we’ve already had a private presentation from Tom, and it is a long way. However, if you’re in Edinburgh in April, why not go and hear him?

Ipswich Skeptics in the Pub is now Ipswich Science in the Pub. Organiser John Benton says, “There’s no real difference, but it’s a title that’s easier to explain to people.” The next meeting is described as a “get-together”.

Of interest to the Census Campaign, a new survey from the Searchlight Educational Trust indicates that “only 54% of people in this country define themselves as Christian,” the NSS reports. The survey had over 5000 respondents, which is larger than most.